1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to display arrangements in general, and more particularly to information-bearing display panels for items to be held on display in a store or another similar establishment.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various constructions of display structures, among them such that are capable of holding various items, be they articles of manufacture such as consumer goods, brochures or other publications, or other objects, in positions relative to a passerby and potential observer that display such items to their best advantage. It has also been proposed before not only to make the display structures as attractive as possible (as distinguished from the rather drab appearance of the traditional corrugated or cardboard boxes or the like), but also to provide such structures with information that would attract the attention of the passerby and make him or her notice the items being promoted, or the identity of their manufacturer, or any other similar information that may be presented on the display structure.
Experience has shown, however, that merely putting this information on the surfaces of the otherwise parallelepiped display structure that are exposed to view (most of the time its side surfaces) does not make this information prominent enough to really attract the attention of the person passing by on his or her way to the location at which the items that person intends to purchase are situated. In view of that, it had been proposed to provide the traditional box-shaped display structures with panels or formations, be they referred to, depending on their locations relative to a main body, as "headers", "footers" or "side bars", each of which forms a frame-like extension of the main body adjacent the opening in which the items are held while on display and hence presenting an additional display surface that can be (and, because that was the idea behind providing such an extension to begin with, is) provided with the aforementioned attention-grabbing information.
In its most primitive form in which the display structure or device is constituted by the ordinary shipping carton (of corrugated board, cardboard or the like) the items came in, one or more of the flaps that had originally closed the region of the box through which the items on display are now accessible may be used to form the respective extension(s). However, it has been established that rarely, if ever, are the attempts to cause such flaps to assume, and particularly remain in or even close to, their desired positions, in which they extend outwardly at right angles to the adjacent carton walls, successful. This is at least in part attributable to the fact that the hinge portion that connects the respective flap with the adjacent carton wall "remembers" that its "original" state (i.e., while the carton was still a closed box) was also at a right angle but in the opposite direction, or at least that the flap's real original state (i.e., as manufactured) was along the same plane as its adjacent carton wall, so that the flap will exhibit a pronounced tendency to revert to its original condition. Hence, the flap moves at least toward the plane of the adjacent wall, if not beyond.
One previously proposed way of dealing with this problem was to embed at least one wire or similar element in a corrugation of the display device, this element passing both through the flap and the adjacent wall while extending substantially perpendicularly across the hinge portion, and to give this element a "memory" of its own, but with a countervailing effect. This is done by making this element of a material (typically a metal alloy) that can be rather easily deformed (owing to human intervention) but, once deformed, remains deformed until intentionally deformed again.
Yet, this solution is rather expensive, not only because such specialty materials are not exactly cheap, but also because of the extra effort involved in inserting these elements into the display devices. Moreover, and possibly more importantly, merely embedding these elements in the display devices does not give any assurance that the flaps or extensions will be properly (or at all) deployed at the final destination. Rather, given the widespread custom of the store personnel to merely cut off the top of a box (such as that containing carbonated beverages) when it is desired to keep the contents confined in the container it came in and yet make it visible to the purchasing public, it is more than likely that the same practice will be followed even with respect to the boxes equipped with such elements, thus defeating the very purpose of inserting them in the first instance and bringing the additional expenditure and effort involved in utilizing this expedient to naught.
As exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 1,524,880; No. 1,776,134; No. 2,914,236 and No. 4,828,164, the art has disclosed information-bearing display panels or headers that are either integral with, or separate pieces from, display structures. In any case, such headers are required to be manually moved and manipulated into position--a situation which not only adds cost and labor, but also which can be performed poorly, especially by untrained personnel, thereby resulting in a sloppy advertising display.